After checking out the vineyard, a quick stop in Los Andes to check out the nearest city (population: 80,000), and a late dinner, we all headed to sleep.
For the night following the 20-km biathlon race, the weather forecast called for a chance of heavy snow, strong and gusty winds, and dense fog. As Travis and I walked back to the warfare school from Hotel Portillo, whose Wi-Fi connection we used to get on the internet and make some phone calls, we could see the fog started to creep up the valley and start to block out the base of the mountains and some of the stars. Only time would tell if that fog would bring a blizzard worse than the one earlier that morning during the individual race.
I was just standing beside my bed this morning and my heart rate monitor showed 120 bpm. No lie. The past several mornings, my heart rate has been high, but not that high.
With two false starts to my season… first, the pole fiasco in the Austrian Cup in Obertilliach, and second, the freak snowstorm that kept my skis from arriving for the start in the European Cup… I was really looking forward to World Cup 3 in Hochfilzen last week.
Stream of bad luck seems to have befallen the early season for me. First, in the Austrian Cup, there was that little episode with malfunctioning equipment. Last week, we were just skiing on a 2.5-km loop of man-made snow. The snow was out; it was warm. Then, it began to rain. For two or three days, it poured. The morning of the sprint race, on Saturday, it was still raining. But by the time we arrived at the venue two hours later, the rain had changed to snow, and two inches had fallen. No problem. Except that our van wouldn't budge from the parking lot, so the waxman didn't make it back to the venue in time for my start. So, with little else to do -- I had already zeroed and was standing in the start area ready to go -- I just grabbed my training skis, missed my start by 20 seconds, and headed out on course for a nice workout. Shooting went well, considering the circumstances, and I missed only two shots out of ten. Now, I am in Hochfilzen, two hours north of Obertilliach, near Salzburg, for World Cup 3, which starts on Thursday. There will be a sprint on Thursday and another sprint on Saturday -- a sprint race is only 10-km. I feel good, so it will be great to see how I do! Wish me luck.
Prone, 2 misses. Standing, 1 miss. Fiddling with my ice-jammed pole grips, 50 seconds. Result? Not one I care to share. Looking forward to the European Cup this weekend, instead.
The good shooting continues. I drove to Ruhpolding today from Ramsau to compete in the final of six races at the German National Championships in biathlon. These competitions are used to decide the German World Cup team for December, so there is very good competition. I shot perfect prone and missed two out of twenty standing to shoot a total of 90 percent. I've never shot so well before this summer - first 95 percent in Sweden in August, and now 90 percent. I hope it continues! My ski speed from today's race is hardly worth noting. I could list a dozen excuses, but the reality is that I still have a lot of work to do.
Three races in three days, and a better result in each one. The international rollerski races in Östersund started on Friday night with a 12.4-km skate race, in which I placed an abysmal 26th place. Saturday around noon, we competed in a sprint race, in which I missed four of my ten shots to finish in 18th place. Today, in a true pursuit race where the starts were based on yesterday's sprint results, I missed only one shot (in my first standing stage) to climb from 18th to 11th place at the finish. I had the sixth fastest time of the day, which was the best for the U.S. Check out the results here. And check out images in the new gallery.
Today, through slush, drizzle, and thoughts of being finished with the season soon, I won my first Senior National Title in Valcartier. I started out with a miss in the first prone stage, a clean standing stage, and a single miss in the second prone stage. I believe at this point, I was in second place. But then my focus came undone, and I missed three targets in my final stage. The final shot - which I eventually hit - took painfully long. The season will be over after the spring and pursuit races this weekend. The past three weeks since the Olympics, I have been planning for next season. I haven't been as "athlete"-like as I would have liked, but the snow conditions that I returned to were not so motivating. Nonetheless, I felt surprisingly good today in both shooting and on skis, so I am looking forward to what I will put together on the weekend!
